Retired football player Song Jong Guk recently opened up about undisclosed anecdotes regarding the football match Korea vs, Portugal during the 2002 World Cup.

On the episode of MBC’s Golden Fishery―Radio Star that aired on August 22, Song Jong Guk was asked, “We hear that Spanish football player Luis Figo asked the Korean national football team to lose the game for them. Is that true?”

That was because Korea and Spain were to compete at the final round of the group preliminaries. Portugal could proceed to the round of 16 if they tie at least while Korean team already confirmed to proceed to the final sixteen as no. 1 in the group.

Song explained why the negotiation was impossible: “We―players on both Korean team and Spanish’s―talked, but the most players on the Korean team didn’t understand English.”

Song added, “Despite the language barrier, they did express the things with body language. They said ‘If we draw, we both proceed to the final sixteen. Why do you insist on having a cutthroat competition?’ Still, we need to win the game. Otherwise we would’ve confronted the formidable Spanish team again in the next round.”